New to this forum

[clawmute]

Greetings: I haven't posted here before although I've been reading different threads here for some time. We live in the country and recently started heating with wood again. It's the best heat and LP gas has, as you know, gone through the roof. We live on the Middle Fork of the Saline River 15 miles east of Hot Springs Arkansas on a ridge 100ft. above the stream.

I knew that I didn't want to maul split my wood like when I was thirty, so built a splitter on my backhoe boom. I removed the bucket and use the cylinder to split wood. The pusher attachment is pinned to the cylinder rod and detaches. The splitter assembly also is pinned in place and comes off. The backhoe bucket goes right back on when I need it. Heres a few pix. I'm so proud of the splitter I want to keep it under my bed! I design machinery for an engineering company that works 90% in the forest products industry designing sawmills, OSB mills, and other wood products manufacturers.

This hickory I dug up last summer in my river bottom field is 27"-30" dbh, it took two of us to roll the sections onto the splitter. .

This is my friend Jason

Below: a load of Green Ash with a load of Hickory on the tractor. Added detachable heavy duty forks assembly to loader bucket so I could carry more wood.

This is the top end of the log. We were working back toward the stump. My tractor is a Kubota L4200 (45hp) w/front end loader & detachable backhoe.

 

[charlesfarm]

Nice work on building that splitter!

I wish I could do something similar with my Bolens diesel garden tractor. I've got a 3-pt. w/ hydraulics, but the pump only circulates about 2 gallon per minute -- I'm afraid my cycle time would not make it worth the hassle.

Do you happen to know how many GPM that Kubota has, and what's your cycle time on that splitter?

God bless,
Chris

 

[daemon2525]

I assume that it takes two people to run it? You can't reach the controls and hold the log at the same time, can you?

 

[clawmute]

Nice work on building that splitter!

I wish I could do something similar with my Bolens diesel garden tractor. I've got a 3-pt. w/ hydraulics, but the pump only circulates about 2 gallon per minute -- I'm afraid my cycle time would not make it worth the hassle.

Do you happen to know how many GPM that Kubota has, and what's your cycle time on that splitter?

God bless,
Chris

As far as I can tell the pump gpm is 7.8. The cylinder is about 2.75 dia. this gives a cross sectional area of say 5.94 sq inches. With a stroke of just at 18" this yields 5.94 x 18 = 106.9 cu. in since there are 231 cu. in. in a gallon it takes 106.9/231 or .46 gal to stroke out the cylinder.

Looks like about 4 sec to stroke it out. Of course when you are doing nasty knotty big stuff you run slower to be prepared for faux pas!

I don't know what pressure your system runs at but at 2gpm with say a 3" dia. cylinder (7.07 sq. in.) and say an 18" stroke 7.07 x 18 = 127 cu. in. = .55 gal. 60/2:x/.55 - looks like it would take that pump 16.5 seconds to stroke the cylinder out.

 

[clawmute]

I assume that it takes two people to run it? You can't reach the controls and hold the log at the same time, can you?

Yep - no problemo. See that pipe in the bottom picture? I operate with the handle shown there. I have an attachment - just a piece of 1" pipe with a couple of bent bolts welded to it that slips down over the joystick handle. A small cable comes off each side of the joystick and around a small bend pulley.

One is mounted on the left outrigger and one on the right outrigger. The ends of each separate cable goe to an angle that makes a tee on the upright pipe in the picture. There is a small turnbuckle on each end of the angle - angle is about 16" long.

I use the outriggers to tension up the cables. By pushing or pulling on the handle in the picture I extend or retract the cylinder. Primitive but effective. The pipe is detachable and merely slips down over a rod that is welded upright back of the splitter.

I don't have 50$ (not incl time of course) in the whole thing.

You can bust very big wood with a small cylinder if you have a splitting wedge that has a mininum included angle, eg. very sharp!

 

[HUSKYMAN]

Have any more pics of the splitter? I have a Case backhoe and I want to build a backhoe splitter. Just need to learn how to weld lol

 

[clawmute]

Have any more pics of the splitter? I have a Case backhoe and I want to build a backhoe splitter. Just need to learn how to weld lol

As soon as I can click some off will post. Prob this weekend - post next week.
Meanwhile you can look at his youtube video of a backhoe splitter. I like the simplicity (and low cost) of the one I built.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pRIYFFTlMSQ
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4y0fAYaFu-o&feature=related
http://youtube.com/watch?v=me1qtqBuUU0&feature=related

Personally, I like the cylinder to push and not to split. I've wondered about putting a splitting wedge on both ends!???

The video unit needed many $$$$$ of components purchased (cylinder, hoses, etc.) I don't mind articulating the boom if I am digging with the bucket, but I don't want to when splitting.

When I post addtl pictures I will add more text so you can get an idea of what I did.

I had the steel from junk and the rest was mostly welding. Get yourself a wire welder they're easy to use. I run solid .030 wire on mine with argon mixture. Prettiest welds. For start out though just use flux core wire it's good to learn with.

Frank